Yes, because they always were. Friendship is Magic is a good show, but just because ponies are (yes, are!) primarily for girls doesn’t mean boys can’t enjoy the show and its concepts too, both now and in the 80s.

It looks like she’s holding onto a chips rack or something from the back, so I thought she was hiding behind something. Also, it might not be her — it might be her mother, or even her dad. (Then again, the hair in the back sort of negates that.)

The more that I look at it, the more I think it might be she’s being pressed against the side of that chip rack, perhaps that’s her shoulder that’s being grabbed. I dunno, the implications are already rough as it is.

I get the feeling there’s some information about this dad of her’s I don’t know. I apologize for my ignorance, I’ve not read the other comics, what’s the situation with her dad? Or was there DoA strip I’m forgetting that elaborates this info?

Right sorry, in Shortpacked! Amber’s dad is/was abusive and he had a streak of gray in his hair. Of course Shortpacked!Amber is really different to DoA!Amber, so different backstory is really plausible.

Was. He’s dead. And there was much rejoicing. (Literally, Mike wore a party hat to the funeral, and no one thought that was dickish.)

For DOA!Amber, we do know he left when she was little, with that exact phrasing. That’s pretty much it. It is possible he’s the same abusive ass in this universe as he was in Shortpacked, but it’s also possible he wasn’t. At the very least, we know he screwed Amber and her mom up much less this time since he wasn’t around.

Well considering it is something that happens in real life (and unfortunately still rather often) and has an enormous impact on someone’s life, it is a viable option in storytelling. If you’re prepared to have your characters experience the really bad things, that is.
A problem only arises if it’s used too often. Which it probably is. Creating a bit of an “a woman can’t have a deep and troubled character unless” situation. Which, I guess, is your real problem with it. Making it a cheap cop out for many writers. Which is in turn putting those who do it, but do it right in an undeserved bad light.

But, YES, it is used too often. It has been the origin story of so many female superheroes, even being retconned into the origins where it didn’t already exist, and meanwhile I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times a male superhero has gotten his start because he was raped.

Mostly because that number is zero.

(Seriously the ONLY example I can think of at all, period, is SPOILER Derek Morgan of Criminal Minds, who was molested as a child by a priest. SPOILER, and he is not a superhero.)

Just seriously try to imagine for a moment if the next dark reboot of Batman had the first cop who showed up to help him in the ally instead force him to give him a blowjob. Now try to imagine that that was already a pretty common origin story for a superhero and that you were physically exhausted by the thought.

I know Amber’s childhood was really, really awful in Shortpacked and that it might also be awful here, but I will STILL be depressed if it turns out that’s what’s motivating her here.

On a related note, could you name names, concerning rape-victim origin story super-heroines, as Starfire and Black Cat are the only ones who come to mind? I’m hardly a hardcore western comics follower. Most of my Marvel and DC knowledge comes from other sources

I think the mention of a robbery here is curious. I recall she was giving Sal some weird looks earlier, Sal has robbed stores in the past… I’m probably getting something wrong, but there might be a connection there. Also, I’m curious as to what it is in front of her that’s getting ‘grabbed’, or is the view from the side and is that her shoulder? Either way, what’s going on doesn’t look good.

My pet theory is less than pleasant, unfortunately. -.- Gotta love what warp your mind’ll go through. But I could be wrong, could just be a simple robbery gone bad that traumatized her. Buuuuut ze hints do not allow ze mind to skip to better alternatives.

Finger placement implies to me that it’s her hand, and she’s clutching a bag or hat in front of her (perhaps to add some cover) or gripping her knee (if she’s crouched on the floor.) To me, it really looks like she’s just hiding, not being the focal point of an attack.

That could be it as well. The indication of something behind or further back from the object being grabbed (you can sort of see it covering up her chin) makes it look like a bag or something similar, or that she’s being pressed into something possibly. Or, she could be turning her head into something, I’m not sure. Its sort of the combination of factors and the way she recounts it in a possibly traumatized way that makes me assume the worst. Notice how she’s screaming– something at least distinctly disturbing is occurring, and we know so little about the scene that it could be any number of occurrences. To be fair, this is my first Willis comic, so I don’t know about her experiences in any others. (God, why am I thinking so much about this? Damn compelling story.)

In the Walkyverse, her dad was an abusive asshole who punched her in the face after he found her in bed with a boy, was verbally abusive and controlling, basically tried to kidnap her, most likely assaulted her mom multiple times, and was also involved with financial fraud and the Korean mafia, which almost got Amber and her mom in serious trouble. Plus he was sleeping around with women involved in it. Dude was an utter jackass, and we’re glad he’s dead.

In this universe, we know her dad left when she was young. If this has any bearing on the backstory, he COULD be trying to get back in contact by trying to abduct her like what happened in the Walkyverse flashback or something. Alternately, it could very well be a robbery. From the one panel we see, there’s no real reason to believe it isn’t. (By the way, I checked the tags- the only time Sal interacts with Amber OR Amazi-Girl, Amber’s staring at her while Sal talks about coming in through the windows and how it reminds her of boarding school, and Billie complains about Ruth, just before Ruth shows up. So she could be reacting to Sal, but it could just be the incoming RA of Doom.)

Since she said she was around thirteen, I don’t think at the moment it’s going to go down the Very Bad Route… I mean, it COULD, but it’s a hard subject to pull off tastefully, particularly since it’s a really overused trope with superheroines and particularly with a character that young. Especially for a backstory.

Thank you soooooo much for this information. XD I was really drawing a blank about this dad of her’s that folks kept mentioning, ’cause this is my first Willis comic. My main thought is centered around the positioning, the way she’s screaming… again, I’m not happy with the whole concept, but its a possibility. Then again, some trauma with this dad of her’s or a shoot out in a gas station can freak someone out, too.

Don’t mention it! And yeah, it’s been absent in this universe, which allowed Amber to skip the years of character development she needed to recover from it in Shortpacked. We don’t know how much contact she had with him in this universe, just that it was clearly much less than the first one. Especially since it was described as him leaving this time.

For me, it pretty looks like her left hand clutching her right shoulder that she’s looking over while trying to hide behind a sales rack. That, it would seem, is pushed onto her by someone else on the other side.

Wow. And here I’d figured that her origin story was just something like, “Well, my boyfriend decided he preferred cock, and between not getting laid and having to spend the whole summer dealing with every homophobic asshole in his extended family, I really needed an excuse to beat the crap out of some dudes.”

And then Danny would be all, “Wow! The same thing happened to my friend Amber! You remember her? She said you helped her one time. She’s about your height, build, complexion, hair color and length, eye color, facial structure… but she wears glasses and combs her hair, and her speech bubbles aren’t blue.”

The problem is pony fans are everywhere and very vocal. No matter what is said or done, no matter where you are they’ll turn up and inject ponies into it. It sounds harmless enough, and it’s nice something brings them so much joy, but it gets really annoying really fast for those who aren’t into it.

Hell, I was actually planning on watching the show since I’d heard so many good things about it but by the time I got the chance the fans had soured me to the entire franchise.

Yeah, me too. A robbery might be traumatic enough even though she “just” was another customer, but in Shortpacked her dad was some kind of mafia boss and not a very nice person so if it’s the same here, maybe he did the robbery himself knowing she was there or it wasn’t a robbery but somebody trying to kill him? Poor Amb- I mean Amazigirl either way!

Fuck’s sake. What exactly happened to Amazi in this “robbery”? Cause I’m pretty sure that’s a hand grabbing boob. I got some dark images going round my head right now and I’m hoping none of them are true.

Just throwin’ my two cents in here…. She IS thirteen, wouldn’t expect her to be quite as ample up top as she is now. But yeah. I’ve heard it could be a bag of sorts, I thought it was her shoulder if she was wearing something baggy… Either way.

I don’t blame Amber in the least for being unable to pick Twilight or Fluttershy. I can’t choose between those two either. that’s part of the reason I ship them. the biggest reason, though, is because their personalities compliment each other so nicely.

Uh, you do know that none of those things are actually finished, right? Possible exception for Voltron, don’t know enough about it. Whedon keeps teasing fans with the possibility of more TV or another movie, but also does comic books.

But Sonic as in SATAM continues in the Archie comics, and keeps getting games, and anime series. Evangelion keeps getting rebooted and IIRC the current run of movies is unfinished even in Japan.

So these are terrible examples.

But I didn’t say everyone EVAPORATED, and if a fan base was big enough it can still be “pretty active” even if it’s reduced to a tenth of its size at its prime. That doesn’t change the fact, however, that it is now a tenth of its size.

Generally it’s not that love for a fandom turns to hate — and there are exceptions even to that, oh yes — just that we individually become less “active” as fans. Less new material to analyze, so we slow down on analyzing it, and we slow down on writing fanfic, or drawing fan art, so there becomes less analysis to discuss and less fic and art to view, which means we consume fan work at a lower rate, which means artists and writers and thinkers get less response, which means they have less motivation for producing.

It’s a very natural cycle and it feeds itself, causing fandoms to shrink and sometimes atrophy.

All of this happens to a lesser degree these days because of DVD box sets and the Internet, where you can quickly find even the last active forum in existence and be among friends and keep the embers going, but it does still happen. And it’s okay.

Agreed. I’m a big fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but I find the “Brony” title to be too defensive for my tastes. Adult fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender & Legend of Korra or feel the need to call themselves “Big Benders” or anything.
Also the “bro” part of it, and how it reminds me of the whole bro (AKA douchebag, or guido if your Italian-American enough) scene, which adds to my perspective…

That’s far too narrow of a choice. There is a pony higher than my second favorite between them. My favorite has to be Best Pony. That would be Discord. To this day I only have three disappointing moments from him.

1. Discord is forced to physically alter Fluttershy’s mind. Although he might have just not wanted to put in that much time. Based on the events at the GGG I would say that he COULD have broken through her mind given enough effort.
2. When the mane 6 attacked him at the end, he didn’t put up any resistance. With the type of villain that he is, he should have been trying to break down their minds again, even if the others did come their aid and break through.
3. In “Keep Calm And Flutter On” Discord succumbs a bit TOO quickly to Fluttershy’s opposing mind games. There’s obviously more to Fluttershy than meets the eye as she’s the only one who not only keeps their cool around Discord, without being a part of his chaos, but is also immune to his psychological influence. She still can’t resist a direct override though.